Oracle software can be used to fish through EMC, Notes and other information stores.
Oracle has released a new version of its enterprise search application, which allows users to sift through a broader set of data sources, company officials said Monday.
The out-of-the-box version of Secure Enterprise Search 10g is now able to search non-Oracle information sources such as EMC Documentum Content Server DocBases, FileNet Content Engine object stores, IBM Lotus Notes databases, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Sharepoint and Open Text Livelink ECM. Previously, the out-of-the-box version could search Web content and Oracle data centers, but users had to set up an API connection to search non-Oracle data sources.
“It’s something they had to do,” says Susan Feldman, vice president for content technologies at IDC, an analyst who was briefed on the Oracle release. “Oracle is doing a lot to increase access to information.”
The first version of Secure Enterprise Search 10g was released last March, and is a “good contender” in a field that includes FAST, Autonomy and Recommind, Feldman says. Oracle search customers include AT Kearney, a global management consulting firm.
The search program prevents unauthorized access of information by assigning access rights and security levels to the documents themselves, according to Feldman.
“Security is really important and that’s something they addressed with the original announcement, but now they’re incorporating many more third-party data sources,” she says.
The new version, according to Oracle, enables support of “third-party identity management directories such as Microsoft Active Directory, Novell eDirectory, Sun Java System Directory Server and OpenLDAP while also enabling the support for any unique authentication and authorization scheme of an enterprise information source through ‘plug-ins’ delivered with the product.”
The new version also has federated search capabilities, says Greg Crider, Oracle’s senior director of product marketing. Say you have one server that contains sensitive information only certain executives are allowed to access, and a second server that does not contain sensitive information. When a user who is authorized to see secure data searches the second server, Oracle’s search program now allows rules to be set up so that server can ask the first server for secure information.
“It’s not a common technique in search engines,” Crider says. “It is a common technique in security systems.”
Oracle’s enterprise search program integrates well with the company’s new WebCenter Suite, Feldman says. The WebCenter services include the enterprise search program, VoIP, instant messaging, a Wiki service and the Oracle Content Database.
The new search release also has a “suggested content” feature allowing users to access data sources that have not been indexed by the search engine, Crider says.
Oracle’s enterprise search product costs $30,000 per processor, $60 per named user or $30 per employee.
